The everyday essentials stopping you from saving money

For most of us, big life events usually coincide with a financial goal. Whether it’s saving for an overseas holiday, a car, a home or home renovations, a wedding, babies (fur variety included) or to build up an emergency fund. Whatever the reason, the decision to be financially frugal usually starts out the same way - looking at your expenses and finding out where you can cut costs.

Looking at your outgoings can be confronting and let’s face it, a little disheartening. Especially when you’re looking at how much you spend per week on the essentials like groceries and fuel.

In a recent report by Finder.com it is estimated, the average Australian spends 47% of their weekly earnings on food and 45% of their earnings on utility bills. In fact, many Australians believe what they are spending on these non-discretionary items creates a barrier to meeting their savings goals¹ .

Other top expenses impacting Aussies’ savings results include food delivery services, dining out and entertainment. It’s reported the average person spends $429 per month on dining out, $135 per month on food delivery services and $375 per month on entertainment ¹.

Are you feeling personally victimised by those stats?

I know a lot of us here at ALI are!

When you’re getting serious about your savings, it can sometimes feel as though you need to give up the things you enjoy or even things you feel you may need to reach your goals.

Even more so in today’s current environment where rising house prices are driving up how much homebuyers need to borrow to get into the market and increases to costs of living (groceries, fuel) means seeing less money leftover at the end of each week. All of these can create barriers to saving and reaching your financial goals.

Something which has been a common headline in the media over the last couple of years is the alarming number of Australians having to give up insurance due to affordability². It’s also something we receive as feedback from our network of authorised brokers. Many homebuyers feel that they simply cannot afford to insure themselves.

We don’t believe anyone should have to sacrifice their peace of mind

ALI Group is a leading provider of personal risk protection to Australian home and property buyers and we don’t believe Aussies should have to forego financial protection to make ends meet. This is why we have our Extra Benefits program.

Extra Benefits is an everyday savings program offered exclusively to ALI customers. When you take out an ALI policy you don’t just have the peace of mind that you have something in place in the event an unexpected event occurred such as a serious illness or even death. You also have automatic access to our easy-to-use Extra Benefits program where you can save on your everyday expenses, including everyday items like groceries and fuel, and the other expenses which we all love such as dining out, ordering in, going to the movies, travel, retail therapy and much, much more.

In fact, we’ve even increased the discount available from popular supermarkets to 7.5% to make the savings count even more. So, for every $1,000 you spend on groceries, you can save $75 – and over a year those savings can really add up.

Extra Benefits is designed to help our customers save money, so by the end of the year what you could save might be the same or even more than the cost of your annual ALI insurance premium.

Imagine not having to choose between your financial protection or dining out this week – thanks to ALI’s Extra Benefits.

If you’d like to see just how much you could save each year through the program, you can access our Extra Benefits savings calculator here.

To learn more about a life insurance available from ALI, get in touch with your broker today!

_{¹Finder.com [accessed March 2022, https://www.finder.com.au/expenses-preventing-saving]

²https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-18/australians-dropping-private-health-out-of-pocket-costs-rise/11975338}

Australian Life Insurance Distribution Pty Ltd ACN 31 103 157 811 AFSL 226403 (ALI) The Extra Benefits program is operated by The Ambassador Card Pty Ltd ABN 27 271 418 094. To be eligible for the Extra Benefits program you must hold a current policy distributed by ALI. Full Terms & Conditions are available at extrabenefits.aligroup.com.au. Discounts are current as at 1 March 2022 and are subject to change. © ALI Group 2022